U.S. Pat. No. 6,456,202, which issued to Johannsen et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,696,963, which issued to Zimmerman et al., are incorporated herein by reference. Zimmerman et al. discloses a water softener and system for monitoring the status of the water softener. A controller at the water softener anticipates salt depletion. The water softener may include a remote unit having a display panel. Status information may be provided to a remote location via the remote unit. The status information is transmitted from the controller via a transmitter. The remote device includes a receiver to receive the status information. U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,529, which issued to Johannsen et al., is also incorporated herein by reference, and discloses a similar system wherein the operating conditions of the water softener are transmitted via a telephone system.